To this day, witch trials result in violence against women, including murder, as they have done since time immemorial – from the hangings at Salem and violent 15th-century European witch hunts to the the 500 “witches” killed in Tanzania each year and the continuing persecution of “witch children” in Gambia.

There are indeed people who have sex with other people in return for dinner, or to pay off bills and debts, or to buy things they want. There are people who are enamoured by the high life when they move to a new place and feel anxious when they don’t fit in, and there are people who spend their money in ways that don’t ensure month-long nutrition in favour of keeping up appearances of wealth, or to feed a gambling or drug habit, or to lead the life they’re used to living. All of these things happen, and have been happening in different forms since time immemorial. It’s just insulting to call any of it actual poverty, and a bit funny and classist to be so shocked that this is happening. The fact that the author seems to find the concept of voluntary sex work so very astonishing and worthy of dissection as a “new” facet of poverty, for example, says a lot about her social location and knowledge of how the world works, and that of her intended readers.